LFG: (Ab)Using the System

15Dec

I must say that so far I absolutely love the new LFG tool. With a couple of minor exceptions I’ve had almost nothing but pure win with using it. Granted, I’ve only done lower level instances with it since I haven’t touched any of my high levels in quite some time, but it’s been great. My wife and several people I talk to on twitter have come across the darker side of it where you would have been better off condemning yourself to a known fail-pug, but as with anything else that’s done “randomly” you never know what you’re going to get out of it.

There are a few things that I want to talk about in particular concerning the LFG though, one which should be obvious but may not, and two which are presented as a question about the LFG quite a bit both on twitter and in game.

Recruit A Friend
Here’s the one that should be obvious to you. Using LFG in conjunction with RAF is a new level of awesome. My wife and her brother are doing RAF right now since they have similar sleep schedules where I do not, and they consistently gain 2-3 levels per dungeon run.

The biggest problem that people faced with RAF was outleveling their gear, where you found yourself in your 30s or 40s still wearing white gear that you picked up back in your starting zone because things just haven’t dropped for you. The next big problem was that people had a tendency to never bother learning how to play their class because it was just so darn easy to level.

The first problem there is easily addressed simply from the gear that drops inside the instances. Generally speaking, the best gear you’ll find for your level will come from instance. You can generally find better pieces that are rare world drops, and you’ll stumble across the occasional crafted item as well, but mostly the good gear will be in dungeons.

The second part is also somewhat lessened because it takes more effort to work together as a team against mostly elite mobs than it is to fight random mobs out in the world. This is especially true for tanks and healers as their roles at end game.

Can Alliance Queue RFC and Horde for Stocks?
The answer to both of these is yes. You can queue for any instance which you meet the level requirements for. So you can take your level 15 Gnomes into RFC, and you can take your level 20 Orcs into The Stockade.

You are teleported inside the instance, so you don’t have to bother running through an opposing faction’s city. Instances are not specific in which factions can use them, they just happen to be located in areas that are typically off limits to the opposing faction unless you’re willing to brave a run through very hostile territory.

The minimum level to queue for any instance is 15, so while you can enter RFC at level 8 and used to be able to queue for it at level 13, the minimum requirement for instance queues is 15. As long as your level is appropriate for the instance that you want to run then you can queue for it, no matter where it is or which faction supposedly guards the door.

Can I (Ab)Use LFG to Teleport!?!?
Yes, you can.

Now, most likely this is a glitch, so don’t get your hopes up too much just yet as it could be hot fixed at any time. I found in running RFC with my level 15 Mage that after a stupid paladin decided to agro as many mobs as he could and then bubble and laugh as we all died, I had to run back to the instance to get my body and then teleport back to Stormwind. After I died I didn’t want to listen to all the arguing and such so I just left the group. I thought at that point that I might be teleported back to SW the easy way and not have to bother running back to Org from Razor Hill, but no such luck.

When I got back to the instance I jumped inside, the loading screen came up and the progress bar went across the screen, and then I found myself alive and right outside of the instance with Neru Fireblade staring at me (luckily he didn’t agro me). I then used my hearthstone to get over to Dalaran and went about my business.

So if you want to abuse the LFG system to teleport then you have to join the group, get teleported to the instance, die inside the instance, release your spirit, leave the group, and then walk back to the entrance. At that point you can walk back outside and essentially teleport yourself to the zone that the instance is located inside of. Every other method I’ve tried so far has resulted in just being thrown back to wherever you were when you joined the group.

As I noted in the section above, you can only queue for instances that match your level. So don’t expect to have a group of 80s queue for RFC and then go pwn Thrall because it’s not going to happen.